Enjoy a performance by the JZ Jazz Quintet led by guitarist John Zaffiro, a fixture in Milwaukee’s music community for more than five decades. He formed his first group at 13 with schoolmates inspired by bands like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Zombies, recorded in Nashville while still in high school, then immersed himself in jazz at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music’s first Jazz Performance degree cohort in 1973. There he studied improvisation with pianist Tony King and guitarist Manty Ellis and spent a summer learning with Joe Pass. He performed with fellow students and faculty in local clubs, later joined Montage Project and the Tony Pagano Quartet, co-founded Rainbow’s End with Marcia Cunningham, and taught jazz at the Conservatory. His résumé includes stages such as Alpine Valley Music Festival, Milwaukee Summerfest, Potawatomi Northern Lights Theatre, Belfry Music Theatre, and engagements in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, alongside ongoing work both solo and with Jazz Flux and the Jane Taylor Band.
Vocalist Paula Marie Bynum brings a powerful blend of soul, R&B, blues, reggae, jazz, and pop rock, performing professionally since eighteen with groups including Exec, Black Earth Plus, the Eddie Butts Band, US Project, the Mike Drake Band, and her own Paula Marie with Faith, Hope and Love. She has appeared at major regional events like Milwaukee’s Summerfest and the Wisconsin State Fair, contributed vocals and lyrics to recording projects, and took her sound overseas in the late 1980s on a USO tour to Korea, Iceland, Norway, and Germany with Black Earth Plus. Her voice has been described as soulful and richly moving.
Drummer and percussionist Victor Campbell began performing at 12 alongside Manty Ellis and Berkley Fudge, earned a Jazz Performance degree from the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, toured internationally with the KO-THI African Dance Company across Europe, Poland, and Japan, and has worked with artists such as Frank Morgan, Ronald Mulgrew, Melvin Rhyne, George Braith, and Richard Davis.
Pianist Ken Kosut is a Milwaukee-based composer, arranger, jazz pianist, and award-winning music engraver. A Wisconsin Conservatory graduate, he has arranged for Hal Leonard Publishing and engraved transcription folios for McCoy Tyner, Ahmad Jamal, and Oscar Peterson, work that received the 2007 Paul Revere Award for Graphic Excellence. His performances include Peck Pavilion, Uihlein Hall, and Summerfest’s Jazz Oasis, and he currently appears with Rick Aaron and the Men in Black, the Sam Belton Jazz Experience, and the John High Jazz Quartet.
Bassist James Yorgan is a longtime presence in the Racine, Kenosha, and Milwaukee jazz scenes, an in-demand sideman who also leads the James Yorgan Sextet.
A suggested cash donation of $10 will be collected at the door.